The Archbishop of Canterbury joined senior officers and families at the Remembrance Sunday service at Britain's biggest Army base in North Yorkshire.
Dr Rowan Williams gave the address at the Garrison Memorial Church at Catterick Garrison, near Richmond.
More than 400 service personnel and their families packed the church to hear the archbishop speak of the importance of the "connectedness" we
have to the past, to those currently risking their lives overseas and to God.
Dr Williams told the congregation: "It's not just that we are connected with those we know and love who are labouring, suffering and taking risks elsewhere in the world.
"It's not just that we're connected by affection, family bonds and so forth.
"It is also the case that the courage, the sacrifice, the risk taking and the generosity that go on elsewhere in situations of extreme risk, it somehow feeds the rest of us. It somehow keeps the rest of us alive."
The archbishop added: "I don't need to remind this congregation of the connectedness to which all those currently at risk and all those who are to be at risk shortly, all those closely bound to us by friendship and family ties, currently face something of what soldiers in earlier liberations faced."
Wreaths were laid during the service and a lone trumpeter from the Yorkshire Regiment's Territorial Army band, based in Huddersfield, played the Last Post before a two-minute long silence.
After the hour-long service, Dr Williams moved outside the church to greet the representatives of the various units based at Catterick, and hold private meetings with soldiers and commanding officers.
Brigadier Richard Felton, commander of 4 Mechanised Brigade, said of the archbishop's sermon: "I thought it was absolutely fantastic. He really connected with us and I thought his words were really reassuring."
